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Car history – SF Area

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N

NIB

Senior Member
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I bought an Austin Healey 3000 this summer. Since it’s winter in Denmark right now, I decided to spend some time trying to find as much as I could about its history.
It was sold from Fantasy Junction in SF and exported to Denmark.
https://www.fantasyjunction.com/cars/544-Austin-Healey-3000%20Mk.%20III%20Phase%20II-Inline%206%20Cyl

I bought it in 2010 from the Danish owner, but sadly he didn’t have any of the documents that came with the car. They were lost somehow during the tranport. I contacted Fantasy Junction, and they were very helpful, but explained that they had shipped all the documents with the car.

I was hoping to find someone in the SF area, who knows the workshops mentioned in the sales description, perhaps they get their car serviced there, get parts from them or something. They might be able to contact those companies and hopefully help me get a copy of the service history.
The dealers are mentioned in the sales description as: “It comes with extensive documentation and has been serviced at either BMC (British Motorcars, now a Jaguar, Land Rover, Rolls Royce, and Bentley dealer) in San Francisco or British Car Specialists”

I know it´s much to ask, but I hope someone on this forum can help me, if they by chance is going to visit those shops. I will naturally pay for all the expenses involved in getting the information. The American owner for many many years was Charles H. Gibbs from Oakland.
 
I don't believe that the guys from British Car Specialists are on this forum (they do, however, read the Healey AutoX mailing list). They are super nice folks. I'd recommend calling them (if possible) if not, shoot them an email. If they have the info I'm certain they would happily share what they have.

Jody
 
Call David Nock at British Car Specialists. If they worked on the car, he'll probably remember it. 209-948-8767
Al
1959 100-6
 
The BMC dealer that was on Van Ness in San Francisco was our closest source for parts during the late 70s, when I worked at Austin-Healey West, but they'd rarely give you the time of day! Just HORRIBLE people working behind the parts counter in those days (a red-headed hippie-ish type and a German guy that didn't talk__only grunts).

Even though it was farther and more of a hassle to get to, the Oakland BMC dealer was A LOT nicer to deal with, and the "old guy" (Frank?) behind the counter would do everything he could to find obscure parts for us.

I hope that things (at the SF dealer) are different now, but just remembering it was reliving a bad experience.

You might try to contact the California DMV, as they may have some ownership records on file.

Good luck with your search!

Edit: just came across this: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/vehindustry/vin_memos/vin2010/10vin05.pdf

But wait, there's more! https://www.add123.com/autodata/nmvtis
 
Thanks to all for your fast response, now I know how to contact British Car Specialists, I dont know why I didnt just search for them myself on the internet. I will contact David Nock and see if he is able to help me.

To Randy:
I tried to search for HBJ8L38231, but the response was :"Unfortunately, no matching record was found in the NMVTIS database."
 
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